DY Patil Sports Stadium echoed with the fans belting out the lyrics to ‘With or Without You’ by the iconic band U2, that was voted as one of the “100 Greatest Pop Songs” by 'Rolling Stone' magazine in 2000.
The fan' excitement was understandable, for they had had to wait for over 4 decades to catch a glimpse of the 22-time Grammy-winning band and one of Ireland's greatest exports U2 to sign up for its first-ever gig on Indian soil.
The show was kickstarted by the English rock band, High Flying Bird, who has been one of the special guests during the tour. After an excruciating wait, the wildly-popular U2 frontman Bono greeted the fans with a “Namaste” and thanked them for waiting for four decades for the band to perform in the country.
Thereafter, the legendary quartet took to the stage with the militaristic drumbeat and melodic harmonies of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ as their opening song and a night of melody, reminiscences, and good vibes was kicked off.
The entire sports arena filled with the sea of crowd grooving to the beats of ‘I Will Follow You’, ‘Bad’, ‘Elevation’, with screens lit up with the famous Joshua Tree iconography.
A special segment titled ‘Herstory’ played out as a tribute to all the biggest female trailblazers in the world, putting the spotlight on journalist Gauri Lankesh, author Arundhuti Roy, 16 year old Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg, among others.
Wherever there is U2, there is always a message that goes beyond music. Invoking Mahatma Gandhi's principle of ”Ahimsa’’; the band collaborated with the Academy Award winner and musical maestro A.R. Rahman, who joined U2 on stage (alongwith his two daughters Khateeja and Raheema) to perform the new song for the first time.
The crowd almost jumped out of their skins in surprise when the former 'Oasis' member Noel Gallagher got on the stage with an acoustic guitar and joined the Irishmen in singing ‘Desire’', which was the undisputed highlight of the show. The 2019 Tour concluded with the anthem track “One”, with the Indian tricolour splashed across the screen.
‘The City of Dreams’, Mumbai, was the last stop for the worldwide 'The Joshua Tree Tour 2019', commemorating their critically-acclaimed fifth studio album 'The Joshua Tree' (1987), that happens to be the fastest seller in United Kingdom history.
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